How to make your own satellite weather station

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Would-be weathermen across the country use the age old cliche “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a second it will change!” to satisfy the curiosity of people wondering about the outside conditions. This is akin to using a weather rock (below right) to predict if it going to rain on your parade:

Now, except for a distinct lack of early warning detection, the weather rock is otherwise it’s pretty accurate! For budding meteorologists that need more detailed information, though, there is a way to receive weather channel-grade satellite images to analyze on your home computer. All that is needed is a little know how and a “Softrock” SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver kit that interfaces with some open-source software to generate satellite weather images like the one above.

Commercial radio receivers are not geared to receive satellite-based signals, but this setup will allow you to have no problem receiving signal from the heavens. Let’s get started.

For starters, head on over to a site run by a gentleman named Tony Parks who runs a web store for the Softrock kits. Pricing on said kits is very reasonable at $56 for the Softrock Ensemble 2. The bundles seem to be pretty popular because the site is sold out often, so keep checking back if you cannot pick one up right away. Putting the Software radio together is pretty simple, especially if you have soldering experience. If you do not understand what the term “reflow” means in terms of soldering, do some research on the topic so you don’t mess up that brand new kit you just got. There are many videos available as well that detail the process of Softrock assembly, make sure to check them out if you get stuck and need some help.

In addition to the Softrock kit, you are also going to need a fairly modern PC. The idea behind SDR is to have as little radio equipment as possible, basically enough to be able to interface with an antenna, then let software do the actual heavy lifting. This brings the cost down to ridiculously low levels, opening radio up even further to the masses. Make sure to use the PC in your home with the most power, and make sure that it is located near where your antenna is going to be placed. Logistics is a big part of this project!

After setting up your hardware, you’ll need to install some software that allows you to interface with your shiny new antenna build. If you are using a Mac with this kit, an excellent SDR software option exists called DSP Radio, written by Sebastian Mrozek. DSP Radio does a great job with spectrum tuning and bandwidth tweaking to allow a user to get the best signal they can. On a Windows computer a good option is PowerSDR, which was designed by the same people who you got the Softrock kit from.

Now that you have both the hardware and software talking to each other, you are ready to receive radio signals from the low orbit weather satellites circling the globe. Tuning into that signal is not a difficult process, just follow HF-Fax’s instructions.

The last thing to tackle in this setup is to translate received radio signals into the beautiful weather imagery pictured above. This requires one more piece of software to do the signal conversion to visual information. A recommended choice by radio pros is APTDecoder by POES-Weather.com. It has powerful tools that allow you to create both black and white and color images, as well as overlay political boundaries for visual perspective. The best part is that APTDecoder is freeware, covered under the GNU license.

With all of that done, you are ready to begin your own weather reporting on Youtube, just don’t blame us if you get heat for wrong predictions, or mean emails from the would-be weathermen we mentioned above. Now don’t forget, you are not limited to just satellites with this setup! You now have your very own shortwave listening station, allowing you to tune into ham radio frequencies and the like. Remember though, you installed a receiver, not a transceiver, so you won’t be able to talk back to the other operators you may hear as you dial through the spectrum.

As your expertise grows in the Softrock arena, perhaps you could create a sweet looking setup like the one pictured in the video below. Have fun and enjoy your project!

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